Arcopol Chaudhuri

Mumbai: Percept Ltd is scaling up its content and IPR businesses through inorganic growth within the media and communications domain.

The company,which recently consolidated its business units, currently services clients in India and the Middle East. It plans to raise Rs 1,500 crore through a mix of private equity, IPO and debt.

Of this, Rs 150 crore has already been raised through Edelweiss, Passport Capital. The company recently raised Rs 62 crore from Indivision India Partners, the PE division of Future Capital.

Percept says this has been done at a valuation of up to Rs 1,200 crore. Through the IPO, it is expecting to raise about Rs 250 crore.

It is now in advanced stages of negotiations with other strategic and financial investors and is expecting to close its first round of funding within the next few weeks. The company is also planning an IPO in the third quarter of the current financial year.

Ajay Upadhyay, president-corporate affairs, said Percept has been a closelyheld company for 24 years and has grown organically and inorganically.

“We are set to enter the global stage and we will be partnering with strategic partners going forward,” he said.

The funds will be deployed for strategic investments in areas of IPR acquisition, home video distribution, film production studio, development of digital and mobile content and international distribution.

The overall idea is to integrate content businesses covering the entire entertainment value chain.

More investments will happen in animation — both in development of global content and animation production.

The marketing communication business will also be strengthened with key investments in the area of media services and digital and online marketing.

Source : DNA